2021-06-22: Back Home Again (To Murder!)

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  • Log: Back Home Again (To Murder!)
  • Cast: Riley Arwell, Xander Lovell
  • Where: Zoara Badlands
  • Date: June 22, 2021
  • Summary: When Riley and Xander weren't able to get in a timely sacrifice, they find more and more unpleasant symptoms of the curse. But they deal, in their own way, like always.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

After the Fangs' miserable experience fighting the trio, Riley is trying to get them back to something like their 'normal,' and maybe to give himself permission to be normal again, even if that means smiling and being foolish in spite of the blood on his hands, the ongoing pain he's brought to Xander, and the names he's forgotten or never knew.

What does normal look like? He has stopped in their travels to serenade a bug.

"Hey there weird bug,
Oh dear bug
I don't know why your head is shaped like that and what's that thing growing out of your back...?
I keep trying to count your eyes and finding more, I wonder, what could they all be for...?"

His playing sounds a little ... off. The transitions are slower and clumsier than usual, and there's a bit of a buzz to it, like he's having trouble holding the strings down against the frets. There are also tears in his eyes, which doesn't seem to be justified by the lyrics of this song but you never know with Riley, maybe he is so moved by the beauty of this weird bug that he is ready to cry about it.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

After trimming away the bulk of the curse's infestation so he could put a new eyepatch back on, Xander spent an unusual amount of time of their recovery buried in his notebook. The names are there. Those he spoke aloud, and several he didn't get the chance to say. He tried to learn them, even from their ambushes, though it wasn't always possible. Did it matter that he knew so many? Does it make him more of a monster to make sure he never forgets the humanity of his prey only to take their lives in spite of it?

Watching Riley smile and sing, Xander's reminded that he doesn't care what it makes him.

He'd been hovering around Riley with concern, never wanting to let Riley stray from his sight and tensing whenever it seemed Riley's hand might have been reaching for a dagger. Had the experience drawn him back to thinking the world was better off without him...? Song, no matter how frivolous -- especially because it is -- should finally cleanse away the tension.

...Except it's wrong. Xander's well enough attuned to Riley's sound to know when something's off despite lacking musical skill. Dread sinks in anew, and when Xander sees the gloss of tears --

"Riley?" Xander's voice is quiet, afraid to break the fragility of sound despite that's exactly what an interruption is going to do. "Riley, look at me."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

"Mm?" Riley says, going into a shakey instrumental bridge. He has noticed Xander's worried hovering and it is all the more reason why he has given himself permission to just try to forget the whole thing and be okay again. But Valmar always seems to have different ideas about when and where Riley can be okay.

He flicks a glance to Xander at his request, and offers a strained smile.

Around the same time, some of the blood that's welled up from his palm during his playing starts to run down his forearm in thin rivulets. He surreptitiously tore the thorns and their roots out of his hand when they first grew in this morning, but the gashes they leave behind won't heal until the Fangs have fed.

He can still play, at least. More or less.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander isn't sure what he's expecting to find, or what he expects to do about it. The nature of the Fangs is that once they begin to wither from hunger, nothing but sating them will bring their health back again. But there was a time, once, that Riley said Xander was able to heal his soul. But that might as well have been another life altogether. Another Xander altogether.

He takes in Riley's smile uneasily, and words don't form until he catches the red against Riley's arm. Xander grimaces, reaching to take Riley's wrist to try and forcibly still him from playing. His own grip is shaken.

"Damn it, Riley...! At least let me bandage you up..."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

"But Xander, I haven't finished serenading the bug...." Riley protests, as Xander tries to stop his playing.

"The universe needs to know of his strange beauty and charm..." He looks entreatingly from Xander toward the bug in question, which perches on a twig, staring back at Xander expressionlessly. It somehow hasn't been spooked away by this noisy attention. Somehow the creatures that catch Riley's eye rarely are.

At least let me bandage you up...

"...Oh. That might help." He admits, and surrenders his hand.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

There is a brief moment where Xander glances from the bug and back to Riley again, conflicted, before he realizes it is actually absurd to worry about a bug not getting a full and complete song.

Xander sighs in heavy exasperation. He takes careful hold of Riley's hand to inspect it, gently removing Riley's glove by tugging at one finger at a time. His own hand keeps Riley's held up while the other fetches a cloth from his pack to clean up the excess blood that he can first.

"...Maybe... you should stick to your voice for now," Xander ventures, unusually wording it as a tentative suggestion instead of making a demand.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Riley mouths an apology to the bug. It lights up several of its eyes at him, sending some inscrutable bug message.

...Maybe... you should stick to your voice for now

Riley winces at the suggestion. "It's fine, we bleed for all kinds of reasons these days, I can bleed a little for a song here or there. Valmar isn't the boss of me." Except for the fact that Valmar dictates most of his life.

The glove, pulled away, reveals a constellation of piercing wounds in Riley's palm, where Blood Flowers had burrowed and been uprooted. It's not bleeding at an alarming rate, but it certainly explains the pain that was creeping onto Riley's face during his song.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"The bug will be fine," Xander insists.

He sucks in a sharp breath at what he finds, and his grip on Riley's wrist reflexively squeezes. It never gets any easier to see it and what it does to them. It never gets easier being helpless.

"You can't hold a bow like this." Riley can hold a bow like this. He shouldn't hold a bow like this. Or rather, Xander wishes he wouldn't.

Xander begins to wrap Riley's hand, weaving over and under Riley's fingers to secure the coverage and offer what he hopes will be padding against guitar and bow strings alike in silent resignation for Riley refusing to listen. He continues like Riley might, anyway.

"...You can sit this one out."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

You can't hold a bow like this.

Riley pulls a face and then leans forward and kisses him, his tone softening. "Sure I can. It will hurt a little. It isn't going to kill me. My arrows find their own targets half the time, I don't even have to be a good shot anymore..."

Something about that thought brings a shadow to his face, but he banishes it quickly enough, replacing it with a mischievous smile as he watches Xander tending to his hand.

"I do like to have you fuss over me, though, please continue. I mean, except for the banning me from things." Riley, making him self conscious is not going to improve your chances of further attention.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander goes still at the kiss, staring back at Riley as each word bites in with new frustration. Riley's expression falls, and Xander, unable to endure it, focuses Riley's hand to finish the bandaging. But even once he's done, he wraps both of his hands around Riley's in his own protest to keep Riley from brutalizing it again at least in the next fifteen seconds.

Even without that, it won't be long until blood stains through regardless.

Everything's always so... inevitable. Riley not listening. The cycle of the curse. Their suffering. The weight of it right now is heavier than Riley's attempt to tease him. "I just --" He complies, wordlessly, via bringing Riley's hand up to press his lips against it as if such childish rituals would do anything for wounds.

He closes his eye and shakes his head, struggling to take that sentence any further.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Xander does not manage to use words in his fussing, but it is no less meaningful for it as he places a kiss on Riley's hand.

Riley looks on with a warm rush of delight to have gotten sweetness instead of grumbling and denials. Sometimes it can feel too frightening and real when Xander lets some of his walls down, as it tends to happen in their darkest times. But in this instance, Riley feels able to savor it, and let it pull his mind away from the nagging unease. He can still play... but he won't play without pain again until they've gotten a kill. Better to think of Xander being cute for him because he demanded it.

"I feel much better," he whispers with much gravity, another of his jokes that isn't a joke. He considers the actual bandaging. "You've made it very well padded, too..." He wonders if that will make it hurt a little less, and give him more room to push his luck, which means it might have backfired.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"Because I know you," Xander says. "You're not going to listen to me." He swallows, his throat tighter. It's not even the worst of what Valmar's influence has done to them, but this particular cruelty is needlessly precise.

Unfortunately, even Xander has to admit here may be a point in Riley's philosophy of not letting Valmar kill every tiny joy they have.

Xander finally manages to look Riley back in the eye, sighing before leaning in for another kiss of his own. "... Is there anything else you're hiding?"

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

You're not going to listen to me.

"That's true, but it will be okay." Riley accepts the kiss, which Xander follows with a question... ... Is there anything else you're hiding?

Riley looks himself over, as if checking for secret thorns he might have forgotten about.

"I mean, they're spreading a bit in my hair but there's not much we can do about those." There's not much they can do about any of them, but Riley does prefer to remove them when it's feasible. The memory of living overgrown with them still hasn't left him. He'd rather have injuries than invasions, even if they need to be removed again and again. At least he can't see the ones on his head. He can almost convince himself they're something else.

"How about yours? Did anything new spring up? Would you like me to kiss any of them?"

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"Yeah. It will be." All they can do is make sure of that much.

Xander squints at Riley skeptically with the assessment, but accepts the answer. "No, I suppose not... And I wouldn't recommend messing with your scalp even if we could." He winces. "...Too much bleeding."

Some areas are more dangerous than others to go digging the roots out of.

He sets his hand absently over his eye. "I don't think you're going to want to do that. It's mostly here." Xander pauses without a thought, then goes to shove back his sleeve to look to his arm. Even he seems vaguely surprised by some of the sproutlings crawling from the still-healing scar though. "And here?" No thorns yet, so no prickling to demand his attention -- it was a hunch, given where Riley's new ones were.

"...At least now we're back on Filgaia, where this all tends to go a little more smoothly..."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

I don't think you're going to want to do that. It's mostly here.

"I suppose I'm forbidden from kissing you there..." Riley laments. It's a joke (in poor taste) about how he was the one who caused the damage, although practically speaking it would also be very unwise to apply any pressure at all there -- it's painful even to think about how much it must hurt to have thorns there, let alone having them jostled or pressed on by anything. Maybe on his forehead just above the eye, though...

Xander checks beneath his sleeve, and Riley makes a sympathetic and dissappointed sound as they discover new sprouts there. He holds out his hands to request Xander's arm so he can press a kiss to it -- not quite in the sprouts, but more symbolically near them.

...At least now we're back on Filgaia, where this all tends to go a little more smoothly...

"Yeah, I guess we're going to have to get back to hunting again soon." He gives Xander a considering look, trying to appraise the progress of his healing against the progress of their thorns. "How are you feeling in general?"

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander flinches at the joke, though when he scrambles to avert his eye, it seems less in offense and more because his face is finally reddening in a fluster he's avoided until now. "You're... not. Nothing's... forbidden."

Somehow offering his arm is a little less embarrassing now. ...Okay so maybe the childish ritual is effective. Shut up, universe.

How are you feeling in general?

"Well enough. Nothing hurts, except the eye, and that's always --" He curses himself for getting that far with that sentence. "--Always covered," he corrects. "... So it's fine. Better to act sooner than later, before anything has the chance to get worse."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Nothing's... forbidden.

"Nothing is forbidden..." Riley echoes reverently, with a sense that he's filing that information to use against Xander later.

Riley's hands tense where he's holding Xander's arm when he hears that always. He doesn't believe Xander means always covered and he doesn't know if he thinks it means always hurts since thorns started growing in it or it always hurts since a certain idiot stabbed him there. He looks at Xander with worry and pets him a little, brushing his good hand through his hair and along the side of his face, but can't bring himself to ask.

Better to act sooner than later, before anything has the chance to get worse.

A small nod. "It's too bad Valmar's such a dumbass to be taking our hands and arms out of commission and then begging us to go kill people..."

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

That tone makes Xander sigh again. "Should I even ask what you're imagining now?"

But that's not the worst mistake of the things Xander's said. He brings his hand over Riley's, gaze tense and apologetic. He can tell the question's there, but Riley mercifully doesn't ask it.

At the mention of Valmar, Xander outright groans, and his shoulders and neck slump while his face adopts a look of disgust. "And I thought the last round was bad. Neriah was right... there isn't much of an intelligence behind this. Unless it's --"

Xander shakes his head, dismissing the dark thought. "No, Valmar's a dumbass."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Should I even ask what you're imagining now?

"Mm, it is probably better to leave it as a surprise..." The surprise is that Riley is planning to use those words again someday when he wants to get away with something. Even odds whether that something will be intimate or merely ridiculous.

Unless it's --

"Unless it's evil? Because yeah, I'd buy that." Given the way the curse can apparently spread from the dead to the living, Riley isn't sure that 'killing them if they don't deliver sacrifices fast enough' is as self defeating for Valmar as it often seems. But it's more cathartic to call Valmar a dumbass.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

For once, Xander resigns himself to a smile, small and wry as it is -- but that's standard for him these days. "Then... I guess I'll have to wait and see." ...Even if he'd bet on the odds that it's going to be ridiculous. It's fine so long as there's no sense of unnecessary distance worming its way in.

"Evil about sums it up." It's not what he was going to say, though it still describes what he was going to say. It only has to be one of them that kills, Xander would say. And sometimes he wonders, in grimmer moments, if Valmar's instincts agree with the notion... putting most of the pressure on one to demand action of the other...

He breathes in deep and slow to dismiss the thought before it can make him more anxious. It doesn't matter even if that is what it's doing. They'll get a kill before this gets any worse for Riley.

"...What do you want to do after this one?"

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Evil about sums it up.

Riley wouldn't have thought of it in quite the same way Xander does, but it hasn't escaped his notice that the thorns seem to seek out their vulnerabilities and mercilessly make them worse. Maybe they aren't even meant to be warnings that feeding time has arrived again. Maybe the Fangs expect to be fed preemptively and are willing to prune anyone who isn't up to the task.

...What do you want to do after this one? That's... a good question. He glances down at his hand without meaning to. They could use some dreams of the future right now.

Riley tries to summon back his lightheartedness, and hums thoughtfully. "It will be hard to top a beach vacation on the moon..." During the parts where no one was getting tortured, anyway.

He glances upward, then out at the horizon. "We could have more adventures. Would you like to see any of the places I went when I was off on my own? Or we could discover some place new together, if that's better."

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander catches that glance and takes Riley gently by the arm. It's meant to be reassuring, but it pairs quickly with another sigh. Except... "Yeah, it might be."

He likes oceans, okay...!

With that offer, Xander has to force himself not to answer too quickly. "Yes. I mean -- I --" He looks back up at Riley. "...I do want to see where you went. Together."

Maybe it's a greedy thing to not want there to be parts of Riley that Xander doesn't have a window into. But if Xander were going to let worries about greed and selfishness stop him, he wouldn't be a murderer.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

As Xander takes Riley's arm, and says that he wants to see the places Riley visited on his adventures alone, he pulls in a little closer to him, leaning on him lightly and closing his eye with a sigh of his own.

It would be nice to pretend that none of this had happened, and they were just restarting their lives from where things went wrong and doing it properly this time. He almost wants to suggest it -- playfully -- but he doesn't think he could make it sound like a joke.

What comes out instead is a little too raw. "...I wish we'd gone together back then."

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander leans back into Riley. His eye stings, but like this there's a closeness without the expectation to look at each other's faces.

...He does too, more than anything. If he could wish himself back in time, that's the one day he wants to redo. But they can't let themselves fall into that hole wishing for what could have been. Xander squeezes his fingers into Riley's arm.

"We're together now," he says. "I'm -- I'm not letting anything happen to that this time..."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

I'm -- I'm not letting anything happen to that this time...

Xander always talks like that. Like they can go on living this way indefinitely, so long as they keep giving the sacrifices. But one day the Fangs are going to be sated. And then they'll devour them -- Riley doesn't completely know what that means, but with the cruelty the Fangs have already shown, he worries it will be worse than death.

The garden is already looking so lush. They don't have decades together to live out a full life. One more year? Two? Maybe a few more months?

"...We should make sure to do all the things we missed out on," he says. "Is there anything else you still want to do?" ...maybe that came out a little too much like he's planning a bucket list.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander tenses with the finality in Riley's question. That lack of time... He knows, but -- it's time at all. Time to figure something out. Never mind that Xander never has. Purification. What if it did work? Or what if there were truth to Neriah's words... that they face change instead of destruction...

All Xander can know for sure is that the time they have will be shorter if they don't succeed in their sacrifices.

"...I don't hate it when we explore ruins. Finding strange treasures, or pieces of history... new worlds..." Xander sighs. "...I want more of that."

Maybe that's too raw, too much of what they were supposed to have on a long term scale, and not tangible ideas to latch onto now that can feel complete. But how can it ever feel complete?

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

"More of that would be great," Riley agrees softly. He considers his past adventures, wondering which locales Xander would be most likely to find some shadow of delight in. "Maybe something with a natural spring? Or cute animals...?" Hunting will be easier now that they're on familiar turf again. But he should still consider how to make good use of their time...

"How long did we get for our last vacation? A few weeks?" It felt so short. Still, this would be a great ratio of work to free time if the work were anything but murder...

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"Wh-Why would you suggest those two things immediately?!" Xander snaps defensively with the specific examples given. Sorry Xander, you're just not that hard to read. He looks away, redder in the face. "It doesn't have to be anything specific."

But congratulations, he would like those things, specifically.

He sighs out his flustered energy. "...Mm. It feels like it gets shorter each time."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Wh-Why would you suggest those two things immediately?!

"Because I know your heart..." Riley says, smiling with more of a spark of his usual mischief. He had thought about keeping the ideas as a surprise, but it seems that revealing them early came well rewarded.

...Mm. It feels like it gets shorter each time.

Riley's energy lowers again with that thought, and he folds his arms in front of himself, his gaze pulling toward the hand where the curse has taken hold.

"Yeah. I don't know if it just feels that way or if one day one kill won't be enough to throw off the curse." One kill being enough to hold over the two of them has always seemed uncharacteristically generous for the Fangs.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander makes a strangled growl in his throat with such insinuations, as if he could even begin to deny the truth. "And yet that doesn't stop you half the time!"

But he flinches when his offhand comment makes Riley wilt.

"...It was easier to forget last time," Xander says, trying to smooth it over. "That's all."

It may very well not be all. Regardless, they already know more kills means more time. But how can they pull something like that off now...?

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

And yet that doesn't stop you half the time!

"Because your heart has told me that you want a certain amount of stuff that you don't want," Riley responds, serenely. Though nonsensical, this does truthfully describe some of his approach to Xander...

The conversation turns back to the curse, and Xander tries to walk back his speculation that their reprieves are getting shorter. "We were having a very good time," Riley says. He spares a small sigh with the thought of the comfortable seaside hotel, happy beach Xander, and many fruity drinks.

"...I guess we could just start measuring it, but it seems disrespectful." Wouldn't it be like trying to literally quantify how much a life is worth to them? Also neither of them is honestly keeping great track of the time as it goes by.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"That doesn't make any sense!"

It does, actually, and that's the worst part.

"...I don't mind getting an actual inn room once in a while," Xander admits, as if that wasn't near the bottom of the list of reasons why their time in Luca had been something akin to a positive experience, even for Xander.

A shadow falls over Xander's face with the mention of actual measured time. There's so much time he simply doesn't remember that the idea of trying to quantify it from the beginning would be impossible. "It's probably better not to," he agrees. "The curse will let us know."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

...I don't mind getting an actual inn room once in a while.

"Good, because I need regular doses of civilization," Riley says. "Adventure is only fun if it has something to contrast with. And beds are so great... bless whoever invented beds..." Riley is getting emotional now about beds, but at least it's in a lighthearted way.

Xander says it's better not to try to count the time they get off from the curse, and Riley nods. "...Yeah. It's better not knowing." This cycle of suffering and killing and going on 'vacation' feels dreamlike, in a way. Keeping track of the time too closely would make it too real.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

I need regular doses of civilization.

Xander sighs. "... I know." There's an apologetic edge to his tone. He knows himself enough to know sometimes they're avoiding civilization because he's digging his heels about it. He shouldn't forget that beds probably help Riley sleep better, at least.

He reaches to take Riley's hand to inspect it again idly, just to make sure the bandages are holding up.

"Once we get back to the main routes, we're likely to run into some travelers. And then... that'll be it. Do you need more rest first? It won't be a bed, but..."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Riley lets his hand be inspected, giving a small smile because he likes the attention.

The bandage seems secure, though blood is slowly collecting behind it from the wounds that won't heal. And at some point, the thorns are likely to regrow -- likely in the evening or overnight.

Do you need more rest first?

Riley tilts his head at Xander. Xander was hurt worse in that last fight, but isn't usually inclined to admit when he's run down. Riley wonders if maybe he needs to answer for the both of them. "A bit more rest couldn't hurt. I don't know if it's a good idea to try to rush and get it done today." If Xander could stand to have thorns in his lungs for weeks, Riley can wait a little longer to have comfortable use of his hand.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander's hoping he can give the attention without looking too much like he's purposely giving the attention, continuing the inspection long past what's needed to tell what's going to happen. The more he has Riley's hand, the less chance Riley has of abusing it on his guitar.

He's less perceptive to the idea Riley might doing his own parallel of the same thought process.

"All right," he says. "You didn't seem like you took much time to rest while I was out." Not that either of them would have slept particularly well in the aftermath. There's a one-eye-open quality to it after running away from a fight... and Xander's only got the one eye.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

You didn't seem like you took much time to rest while I was out.

"Well, we weren't in a very safe location..." It is probably a lucky thing that Riley didn't wake up any of the Hellions that were apparently in that crypt. That would have ended poorly. "...But yes. I could use some rest." He tries not to put audible scare quotes around the "I". "We can probably find a decent campsite somewhere around here." He scans their surroundings. It's not beautiful scenery compared to what he'd gotten used to in Spira, but it isn't crawling with monsters or anything.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"It wasn't an accusation," Xander says, well aware it can be difficult to tell the difference. He frowns. How did he let himself fall like that? Not next time.

Looking over the wasteland, it's difficult not to remember Spira. It is almost surreal, that paradise... If only it could have been the end of this nightmare. But Xander has to let go of those fantasies.

Xander gestures toward rocky outcroppings before wordlessly starting in that direction. There's only meager shrubbery as foliage. Cereza was afforded a little more greenery than many areas on Filgaia... sometimes the wastelands feel like a reflection of losing it.

But he only makes a few steps before pausing, reaching back to Riley's good hand in his while making no eye contact. It goes in place of feeling like there's something he should say, but he doesn't know how to put the words together.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

Xander reaches for Riley's hand to lead him onward, and the little gesture wins him another smile -- one of the ones that tries harder to meet his eyes than he'd probably like, and has a pleased cat look about it, but is no less warm for all that.

But since there is silence, Riley tries to fill it.

"At least Filgaia has some great bugs," he comments, as they pass by more uninspiring foliage.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

Xander can only endeavor not to show being defeated by smile by looking on ahead. But the rims of his ears are still red for a moment before he calms in the silence.

In some sick way, he can understand how bringing a garden of horrible flowers to Filgaia might be better than this landscape.

"...You gave one the song a bug deserved," he says of bugs and greatness. Maybe there's some plausible deniability the way he's worded it. Shh, let him believe. "And if we do get attacked by monsters, at least we can eat them."

Fiends disappearing into motes of light was hauntingly beautiful, but a little problematic when it came to hunting for food.

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

...You gave one the song a bug deserved.

"Are you jealous of the bug?" Apparently that's the message Riley got out of Xander's noncommittal tone. "I could write you another song, too. Hey there weird Xander, oh dear Xander..." Why is it the same song?? At least he hasn't gotten the guitar out, though.

And if we do get attacked by monsters, at least we can eat them.

"Mm, yeah, that's another reason I shouldn't put away my bow that easily..." If they want strength for murder, they're going to need some protein, which means some hunting of the normal variety is probably in order.

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"No!" Xander shoots back, maybe too defensively. At least he's finally looking back at Riley again. "I'm not -- stop that!" Definitely he should stop before getting to the part about eyes or so help him...!

He shakes his head. "You don't have to worry about that yet. While you were running off looking for --" Ways to emotionally destroy Xander, "-- your own shopping list, I did get us supplies. There's enough dried fish."

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

"I don't know how you got so cute or why you wear that monochrome suit--" Riley's smile grows guiltier as he can sort of feel Xander warning him to try the line about eyes.

There's enough dried fish.

Riley cuts himself off in the song before things get too perilous. "Oh-- yay, fish. That was a good idea. I should have gotten more things that would keep instead of just drinking all the fruit juice on the moon."

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

No nope no no that was already Maximum Perilous. Xander chokes on an utterance that turns into a helpless, absolutely incoherent stutter absolutely unbecoming of his intimidating(?) monochrome look.

Paralyzed, he is forced to reset himself by growling.

"J-just sit down! I'll take care of camp!"

<Pose Tracker> Riley Arwell has posed.

But Xander, how is he supposed to stop doing things like this when his songs get this kind of reaction?

Riley sits obediently, grinning up at him with as much innocence as he can muster under the circumstances. "I don't even have to help make camp? I should get thorns in my hand all of the time..." Or is this more about frazzling Xander so badly he's desperate to create some work to escape from him...

<Pose Tracker> Xander Lovell has posed.

"Do NOT do that!" Xander calls over his shoulder, as if Riley actually had any say in the matter.

He fumbles while gathering some of the tools from his pouch god damn it Riley!!

But even flustered as he is, Xander's well practiced enough to handle getting camp set up himself. Before wandering off for kindling, he drops a serving of wrapped, dried fish into Riley's lap along with a tiny pouch containing a few non-medicinal candies (now in mango). "Shut up and eat."